FOUNDING THE PROTECTORATE 
107 
Indian sepoys and three Zanzibari soldiers killed. This time may be taken as 
the nadir of our fortunes. The slave-trading chiefs at Chiradzulu began to 
give trouble by committing highway robberies on the roads between Zomba 
and Blantyre and Blantyre and Matope. The Ndirande 1 2 people joined them in 
these depredations, and Matipwiri, a very powerful Yao chief who dwelt near 
the Portuguese border at the back of the Mlanje Mountain, together with 
Kawinga, sent out raiding parties from time to time to rob our carriers and to 
carry off slaves. Makanjira having received an enormous accession of strength 
and prestige from the death of Captain Maguire, crossed the lake to the opposite 
peninsula of the Rifu, and with the aid of the disaffected party there drove 
Kazembe from power as punishment for his alliance with the English. 
Kazembe fled to the south. Thus both sides of this narrow ferry were in the 
hands of the enemies of the English. Makanjira’s next attempts were directed 
against Jumbe, and he began a war with him, which eventually terminated in the 
following year by Jumbe’s loss of all his territory except his capital town. 
Fortunately the Arabs at the north end were not ready to recommence the 
war; and Mponda, who held the key of the situation at the south end of Lake 
Nyasa, remained faithful to us. Then Mr. Sharpe returned from leave of 
absence in England, and the terrible pressure of the official work on my 
shoulders was lightened. Moreover I received my first accountant in the 
person of Mr. William W T heeler, 
Avho assisted me in getting our 
finances into order. 
Captain Sclater had been of 
great assistance to me through 
this trying time, and had made 
a rapid journey to the coast to 
obtain things that were wanted, 
and to engage some more men. 
Amongst his recruits was Mr. 
Wheeler, who had come to us 
from a position of accountant in 
the service of the Union Steam¬ 
ship Company. 
But in March, 1892, after the 
disaster at Zarafi’s, the fortunes of 
the young Administration seemed 
certainly at their lowest ebb ; and 
what distressed me much more at 
this period than our wars with the 
Yao, or any trouble that could 
be given by the black men, was 
the attitude of the white settlers 
and some of the missionaries. It cannot be said that the Administration in its 
earlier days was universally popular amongst the Europeans, especially those 
who dwelt in the Shire province. The proclamation of the British Protectorate 
had been followed by a wholesale grabbing of land; or, where it is not fair 
to describe the acquisition of land as “ grabbing,” at any rate huge tracts 
had been bought for disproportionate amounts from the natives, and there were 
1 Ndirande is a mountain overlooking Blantyre. 
2 Now the chief accountant of the British Central Africa Administration. 
